Why are there so many Aussies, Kiwis in NCAA?

How is a mandatory student activity fee not a tax on the parents of students? Tell me about all that ticket revenue Austin Peay State University (LET'S GO PEE) rakes in from football & basketball. That fat TV contract APSU has with that independent TV channel in Nashville. All those well heeled and generous donor alum.

I will take your answer off the air.

An activity fee is not a tax. Schools cannot levy taxes. Only governments can. It's really that simple. There's no other way to answer your question.

It’s true. Aside from footy and cricket, Australia really cares about swimming and that is usually only during Olympic/Comm games cycles. We had the world xc here and no one cared. Ollie won the Comm Games gold and no one cared. A swimmer farts and it’s news.

but when an Aussie runner is doing well, the ratings shoot up, as was the immense support for Bol in Tokyo OG 800m final.

But yes, Aussies dont really give much attention to track competition.

So if Mottram's 'stealing' athletes... what's MTC?

They are both stains on the sport.

If taxpayers are subsidizing the university through the issuance of below market federal loans, and the academic side is subsidizing the athletic department (which pays... the scholarships), then the scholarships are being indirectly paid by taxpayers. Obviously not a huge percentage, but likely not immaterial for most D-1 schools.

Academic departments do not subsidize athletic scholarships or any other kind with funding that they get from the school. They may give out scholarships for individual students but the funding for those scholarships will come from another source than the general university money. If I was wealthy and deeply interested in say, Irish history, I might donate money to my alma mater or to my kids' alma mater to be used for a scholarship for a student who shows serious interest in Irish history. The only way this set up could subsidize the athletic department would be if a recipient of the scholarship I've funded goes to a student whose outstanding in both Irish history and also a particular sport. That would be extremely rare but if that student is using my scholarship the athletic department won't need to use one of theirs on that particular student. But even in this case, no taxpayer money is being used to pay for this kid's scholarship.

I know there are people here who just hate the idea of foreign athletes getting athletic scholarships to US schools and look for reasons why that's a bad thing. People are entitled to their opinions. But if they're trying to make a case that public colleges are misusing taxpayer money they're just showing that they really don't know how athletic scholarships are fun ded.

You come to America if you don't want to be world class runner. You come for the free education. To broaden your horizons. Experience a new culture. But not to become a world class athlete. The coaches in America will run every good athlete into the ground because of the scoring system.

That's a long standing criticism of collegiate running in the US but I think it's long outdated. It was valid when a college season was about winning dual meets and you wanted to pile up points. But most meets today aren't scored. My alma mater had all of five meets over the combined indoor and outdoor seasons where a team score was kept and one of those was Nationals where most of the team wasn't competing. That's the norm now. Yes, you can find stories of athletes doubling and tripling at their conference meet to score points but that's once a year and not going to run anyone into the ground.

And really, foreign athletes who compete at US schools won't become world class? John Treacy wasn't world class? How about Nick Willis, Geordie Beamish, Sam Tanner?

We're talking about private schools, correct? I'll call all tuition money that comes in as going into the academic bucket. You can argue that university endowments grow partially because of the athletic teams that create goodwill with parents and alumni. So when the academic side sends the athletic department money, it simply means that the athletic department is not self-funding. Not all athletic scholarships have a dedicated funding source (private donor contribution, for example).

I had some wonderful foreign teammates. It creates a more diverse student body and locker room. Coaches make decisions regarding scholarship money to be successful.

Roughly 2/3 of former NCAA athletes competing in the Olympics in Track and Field do so under a foreign flag. We are the world’s free Olympic training program.

Who are the latest crop of Kiwis entering college this fall? And where are they going?

As a fellow Kiwi the main reason is New Zealand is a very small country. So small in fact that everyone is related to both Peter Snell and John Walker.

The very important difference is that non-athlete international kids generally pay full out of state tuition and help to subsidize the scholarships for lower income American kids.

International athletes are the opposite. They are almost universally (with the Kenyan athletes especially) on full rides and displace an American kid, or multiple, that could have taken that spot and/or money. Is is reasonable to question the ethics of doing this at taxpayer funded universities.

I do not know why we have to re-hash this debate every time the subject comes up. College athletic departments ARE NOT independently financially solvent entities. A small handfull are profitable, yes, but even they still rely on the infrastructure provided by the university and its state funding.

Money is fungible. Taxpayer money does subsidize these foreign scholarships, in one way or another. Are the exact dollar bills coming out of your paycheck paying for the local Kenyan U? Probably not. But rest assured, the coach could not field a team of 7 twenty five year old mercenaries without your taxes.

English

No idea. They pop up everywhere. It amazes me how many foreign athletes there are here. Even a bunch of jucos with terrible academics have rosters full of foreigners.